My Dad’s Favorite Meatloaf & My Restaurant

To My Irish Friends Out There

Bev had bought a large package of ground beef for me to make deconstructed cabbage rolls and decided that she wanted to make meatloaf from the rest of the meat.  Now I may not be the sharpest pencil in the box, but it didn’t take me long to realize that her announcement meant no cooking for me.  Bev had selected a different-from-our-normal recipe to try and I think it’s because it had the soffritto in it – she likes the veggies in her meatloaf.  The recipe for My Dad’s Favorite Meatloaf came from Simply Recipes.  I show the original recipe below, but I scaled up the one Bev used for our 2½ lbs of meat.

My Dad’s Favorite Meatloaf

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. unsalted butter

1 cup finely chopped onion – Note 1

1 rib celery, finely chopped – Note 1

1 carrot, finely chopped – Note 1

½ cup finely chopped green onion – Note 1

3 cloves garlic, minced (about 1 tablespoon)

1½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

2/3 cup ketchup, divided

1½ lbs. ground beef chuck

¾ lb. sweet ground Italian sausage, or a mix of sweet and hot Italian sausage if you are using links

2 large eggs, slightly beaten

1 cup fresh breadcrumbs

1/3 cup minced fresh parsley

Note 1:  My understanding is that while Mirepoix (French) and Soffritto (Italian) may contain the same ingredients, the difference is that the ingredients are chopped for Mirepoix and minced for Soffritto so Bev used the food processor for these.  The smaller size is supposed to help the meatloaf stay together better.

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Position a rack in the middle of the oven.

Melt the butter in a large, thick-bottomed skillet, on medium heat. When the butter starts to foam, add the finely chopped onions, celery, carrot, green onions and garlic to the pan and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Cover the pan and cook for another 5 minutes, until the carrots are tender, stirring every so often.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add the Worcestershire sauce and 1/3 cup ketchup. Cook for another minute and remove from heat to cool.

Make the meatloaf mixture:

Once the vegetables have cooled to the touch, place them in a large bowl with the ground beef, Italian sausage, eggs, breadcrumbs and parsley. Use your (very clean) hands to mix them together until everything is evenly distributed.

Place the meatloaf mixture into a prepared dish loaf pan (either 4-x 8-inch or 5- x 9-inch) and press to make compact in the pan. Or you can form a free-standing loaf onto a rimmed baking pan. Cover the meatloaf mixture with the rest of the ketchup.

Bake for 1 hour at 350°F, or until a meat thermometer inserted into the center of the meatloaf reads 155°F.

Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes. Then use a metal spatula to gently lift the meatloaf out of the loaf pan to a serving plate.

Cut into thick slices to serve. 

We normally make meatloaf in a bread loaf pan but this was too big so we used an 12x12 pottery dish and we cooked it at 350F for about 30 minutes then 400F until it reached an internal temperature of 155F – about 30 more minutes. 

We blotted the grease on top with paper towels.

We didn’t have a side dish so we could just enjoy the meatloaf – my plate pic is above.

The Verdict:

I thought this was a very good recipe with flavors and texture that both appealed to me - soft yet it held together.  I would definitely use it again except I thought it was a little too salty so don’t know if the recipe is wrong or if we over salted.

Supper the next evening – the real reason we make meatloaf - bread, mayo, meatloaf, nothing else needed.

Most of the meatloaf recipes I see call for a tomato-based sauce on top and that’s what I grew up on and it’s Bev’s strong preference, therefore it’s the standard around here.  However, I prefer to leave off the tomato stuff and add brown gravy to my slice of meatloaf and the mashed potatoes with it.  What’s your preference?

My Restaurant

Over the years, especially when I had my little BBQ hobby/business, folks would say you should open a restaurant, but I was confident I didn’t want a job – I was retired.  Son, Rhett, recently sent me a copy of Anthony Bourdain’s “Kitchen Confidential” which I read – first book in many years.  The book chronicles his life in the restaurant business with his successes and failures.  After reading it, there is not a snowballs chance in hell I would want to be a chef in a restaurant and I can’t understand why anyone but the most passionate of cook’s would want to.  I might want to own a restaurant if I always had an excellent manager, an excellent chef, and an excellent staff so that all I had to do was schmooze with the customers – probably only one in a million are this way.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

3/13/24 meal date